Groovy Age Gold: "The Origin of Dr. Mid-Nite"

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Seems most of us love the JSA here in Groove City, so how 'bout we truck back to the Golden Age (via the Groovy Age, natch) to dig on the origin of a fave JSA-er, Dr. Mid-Nite? Yeah, Ol' Groove thought you'd dig that. "The Origin of Dr. Mid-Nite" really grabbed Young Groove for some reason. I s'pose 'cause Dr. Charles McNider was heroic before he even became a super-hero, and it was really wild that his becoming blind is what led him to become a "mystery man." (Remember, I was 8 years old and still processing the fact that this hero pre-dated Marvel's Daredevil by a couple decades. These Golden Age reprints challenged my growing understanding of what all went on in those four color fantasies I was growing to love so much.) I dug his pet owl (shades of Batman's origin!) Hooty, too. Though author Charles Reizenstein's story is rough, it's fun and definitely grabbed my developing imagination. Stanley Josephs Aschmeier's (better known as Stan Asch) art was crude, but energetic, moody, and fun. Need Ol' Groove say he LOVED finding these Golden Age first appearances and origin stories in the back of those big, beautiful twenty-five cent, 52 page issues of Justice League (this one was #95, October 1971)? Originally from All-American Comics #25 (February 1941) here comes..."The Origin of Dr. Mid-Nite!"

Bring on the Back-ups: "The Sight Stealers!" by John Broome and Sal Amendola

One of the coolest things DC did during the Groovy Age was introduce us young'uns to the Golden Age of comics via their 52-pages-don't-take-less era back-ups. What was really, really cool was when they would occasionally dig up an unused tale from that bygone era and publish it for the first time. Then there's Adventure Comics editor Joe Orlando's style--bring us "new" Golden Age material with a Groovy Age twist. For example, today's post features an unpublished Dr. Mid-Nite tale, written by John Broome and penciled by "artist unknown" rescued from their 1940s "files of the forgotten". The story had never been inked, so Joe handed it to Dick Giordano assistant Sal Amendola to finish, and viola! Golden Age meets Groovy Age. "The Sight Stealers!" finally made its debut in Adventure Comics #418 (January 1972). Check it out!

Later, also in the pages of Adventure, Joe and company unearthed a script for an unpublished, book-length Seven Soldiers of Victory tale, had it drawn by Groovy Age artists, and ran it as back-up for several issues.

Yeah, Ol' Groove'll be sharing that one with ya'll soon. After all, the holidays are upon us and Groove is nothing if not charitable!